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20th Century

In the early 19th century, this grand city became the first in the modern world* to reach a population of one million, and over the next 100 years, that number multiplied six times over. By the mid-20th century, London was home to over 8 million people. Not that you’d thinkContinue Reading

Sir Nicholas Winton, a quiet civilian hero of World War II, has died at the age of 106. In a time of considerable disinterest in the Jewish plight, Winton rescued 669 Czech Jewish children, most of whom would have otherwise perished. In pre-World War II Europe, Jewish living conditions variedContinue Reading

This semester, I am teaching Religions in America at UW-Oshkosh. Rather than simply being a survey course of religions, the course specifically addresses how these religions manifest in and interact with American culture. I debated long and hard whether or not I would cover Islam on Sept 11. I don’tContinue Reading

100 years ago today, Austria declared war of Serbia, sparking the First World War, which would be the deadliest war to that point and arguably the most deadly in history. (It depends how you count the war dead for WWII.) The first time I taught WWI, I asked how manyContinue Reading

In 1974, the US Postal Service put out a stamp stating “Retarded Children Can be Helped.” The sentiment was certainly one we can relate to: the mentally impaired do not need to be marginalized. This is contrary to a long history of approaches to mental disability, which has included institutionalizationContinue Reading

My grandfather was a civilian employee of the U.S. military. He worked in the Pentagon “as the plaster was still drying.” He wasn’t some super secret scientist or anything like that. He was a self-educated administrator who periodically got to meet some pretty famous people. Somewhere’s there a newspaper photoContinue Reading

Elizabeth II, queen of the United Kingdom and head of the Commonwealth turns 88 today, April 21. She is already the oldest British or English monarch. The second and third oldest monarchs (Victoria and George III) were both 81 when they died. As an Aside: Great Britain is the unionContinue Reading

I spent much of this last winter sorting through my grandfather’s collection of stamps. They come from a variety of sources. Some he clearly cut off envelopes. Some he probably purchased, as they are in glassine envelopes. Some were gifted to him by a cousin in 1935. I have zeroContinue Reading

Lesson One: I am doing very badly with my goal of posting history on appropriate days. On April 14, 1912, RMS Titanic sank, killing 1500 passengers while 700 survived in lifeboats. This week marks the 102nd anniversary. Lesson Two: CNN is even less on the ball than I am. TheContinue Reading

Auction house Vermot de Pas has cancelled the appearance of Nazi items in an April 26 auction after multiple groups objected. Critics called the sale obscene and insisted the sale would give the items “unhealthy symbolic value that resembles cynicism and a form of moral indecency”. The Nazis and theContinue Reading